The state Public Service Commission on Thursday took a step toward allowing the Danskammer power plant in Newburgh to go back online.

Without comment, the commission accepted the initial petition from plant owner Helios Power Capital.

Helios, based in Houston, submitted the petition last week, asking that proceedings begin to allow the 530-megawatt plan to return to service. Danskammer, on the west shore of the Hudson River in Newburgh, has been offline since being damaged by Superstorm Sandy in October 2012.

Helios Managing Director Scott Adams, in notifying the Public Service Commission of the company’s plans, wrote that the company had “elected to reopen the commission’s retirement finding in order to resume operation of the facility”.

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Helios bought the Danskammer plant from Dynegy Danskammer LLC last October in a bankruptcy sale and, at that time, left open the possibility of restarting it.

Putting Danskammer back online could provide Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp., the Mid-Hudson region’s primary utility, with additional electrical capacity in times of high demand, and the company has been in talks with Helios to that end. A proposal on the table calls for Helios to provide electricity to Central Hudson for $28 million per year for four years. Central Hudson also would pay $6 million for capital upgrades at Danskammer.

Such an arrangement could ease the impact on Central Hudson customers of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s proposed new “capacity zone” for the Hudson Valley. Under the federal plan, which is to take effect May 1, utilities will be required to buy at least 88 percent of their capacity — the amount above actual demand — from electricity producers within their zone. The Mid-Hudson Valley would be in the same zone as Westchester County and New York City, and Central Hudson initially said the rule could increase costs charged to customers by 6 to 10 percent.

The Public Service Commission in October said Danskammer could serve as a temporary electric-generating facility until environmentally friendly plants are constructed.

Commission Chairwoman Audrey Zibelman wrote at the time: “If the Danskammer facility continued to operate ... it could serve as a (electricity) source ...that would ameliorate the price spike while means for obtaining other sources of reasonably priced (electricity) are pursued,”

Danskammer was built by Central Hudson in the 1950s. Dynegy bought the plant in the 1990s.

Not all are in favor of Danskammer’s return to service.

Phillip Musegaas, the Hudson River program director for the environmental group Riverkeeper, said on Thursday that Riverkeeper “has serious concerns about the proposed restart of this aging, polluting coal-fired power plant.”

“Operating this plant is not consistent with New York’s goals of increasing reliance on renewable energy and expanding energy efficiency to reduce demand,” Musegaas said. “And most importantly, it’s not needed. Restarting Danskammer would be a step backwards and would only benefit Helios and burden local communities.”

Putting the plant back online also is unpopular with potential competitors. In a Jan. 15 letter, attorneys for Independent Power Producers of New York wrote that Zibelman, in not allowing the plant to be formally retired, made an “arbitrary and capricious” decision that was “contrary to law.”